サイフォー。

[tsubasahome]

So far, Lauren and I have watched about 8 or 9 episodes of the Cyber Formula TV series. So I think I have enough experience to give my impressions. I doubt anybody reading this is going to drop everything and spend $89 on a DVD box set of car-racing anime, but I'll lj-cut it anyway for :

Pretty awful animation, even for 1991, but it's a very, very good show. I like it the best of all the anime box sets we got so far(even Escaflowne!) Lauren says it's better than Captain Tsubasa, so I think I have her converted. ^^ It's not bogged down by the based-on-manga messy pacing and slow plot development, so I'm sure even somebody who wasn't sold on the whole idea of sports anime or racing in general would enjoy it. Since the first Cyber Formula series I saw was Zero, and then 11, and then Saga, it's nice to have some background on the characters and there is a LOT of it, even in the first few episodes.

It's also interesting to see how much the characters have changed throughout the course of the series. It's funny how much of a jerk Shinjyo comes across as, before he becomes the world's punching bag. ^^;;; Also, since I knew Bootsvorz starts off as a "villain", it's nice to see that his about face probably wouldn't come completely out of left field(since they don't make much of an effort to hide from the audience that he's not a bad person)

It's sad that Ohtomo completely vanishes by Zero, but even knowing what's going to happen to him, I suppose the new character designer couldn't draw him. But let's not get started on the new character designer.

I remember somebody saying that Asuka "needed to die" but other than having an annoying voice, she doesn't appear to be doing anything that warrants that.

I've also decided that I like Gudelhian more than Heinel. Heh. Even though he is the "stupid American" character. Possibly because their first fight made Heinel come across as having an anger management problem. I've also noticed that the two of them are consistently better animated than the rest of the cast. Miki and Asuka usually look the worst. ^^;;;